Album Notes

Patrick Whelan was born and raised in Ireland, an unlikely place to grow up listening to Mississipppi blues. He was introduced to blues at an early age, and from then on realized all he wanted to do was play guitar. Upon teaching himself guitar he was soon belting out songs from the likes of Eric Clapton, Peter Green, John Mayal, to mention a few. While browsing the local record store's somewhat small collection of blues records he stumbled upon Reverand Gary Davis and from then on became fascinated with the old finger picking styles.

Upon leaving college Patrick decided to emigrate to London. Having spent three years in London he decided to move on to the US. He has since lived in Philadelphia. Now with the release of his debut CD "Old City Session" you can delight in a mixture of fine contemporary blues/ballads, and delightful songwriting.

From the haunting slide on "Lay Me Down" to the melodic "Where Time Goes", Old City Session is a fine introduction to the soulful songwriting of Patrick Whelan. Although adept in the blues this CD also boasts an excellent folk style as can be heard in "Waiting For A Hurricane" and "Until You Came Along". The title track alone has a unique approach to slide guitar which makes this CD stand out as an original and intellegent approach to an old sound.